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OWCC Wins State Brain Bowl Championship

03/06/2004

One of two academic teams from Okaloosa-Walton Community College won the state's Brain Bowl championship on March 6 at the Florida Community College Activities Association (FCCAA) state tournament held at Sandestin.

The OWCC Silver Team captured the state crown following nine rounds of heated competition among ten college teams, all who came to the annual tourney as regional champs or regional runner-up teams. OWCC won top honors in a close championship match against Indian River Community College -- a match decided on the last question. The final score was OWCC Silver 475 and IRCC 450. It was the first time in the 23 year history of the state academic tournament that an OWCC team won the championship.

Lisa Hagen, O-W student activities coordinator, noted the OWCC winning team included two Collegiate High School students, Hannah Fay of Mary Esther and Ben Corbin of Shalimar, while the remaining team members were OWCC college students -- Josh Foraker, team captain, of Valparaiso and David Budenstein of Niceville.

"Our students went against the best academic teams in the state some from colleges nearly twice our size - but we showed that the Panhandle is tough to beat," said Hagen.

Hagen also praised the efforts of OWCC's second team, which competed in the tournament as the regional runner-up, "Advancing two teams to the state tournament is highly unusual since most colleges only have one team," said Hagen. "We are so proud of all our competitors."

The OWCC Red Team, which finished 4th in the tournament, includes Ryan Adams of Niceville; John Alexander of DeFuniak Springs; Ricky Hundley (Captain) of DeFuniak Springs; Josiah Nelson of Niceville and Victoria Spence of Niceville.

Other teams to compete at the tournament from the state's 28 community colleges were Seminole Community College from Sanford, Central Florida Community College from Ocala, Valencia Community College from Orlando, Manatee Community College from Sarasota, Palm Beach Community College, Broward Community College, Santa Fe Community College from Gainesville, and Indian River Community College from Fort Pierce.

The questions for the tournament are broken down into 4 major categories, which are taken from the community college curriculum: Mathematics (Algebra, Trigonometry, Linear Algebra, Calculus through Calculus III, and differential equations); Natural Sciences: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science, Astronomy, Geology, Oceanography, etc.); Humanities: (American and British Literature, philosophy, Greek and Latin history, art, painting, composers, architecture, poetry, etc.) and Social Sciences: (Psychology, Sociology, Geography, American and World history, Political Science, American and World government, etc.).